Today a guest post stolen from @shotta_gooner (shhhh he doesn’t know yet.)
The idea that we would simply walk over Man Utd is simply jaw-dropping in its stupidity. This is a good team who are currently champions of England. After a run of poor results, pride alone dictated they would put up a strong performance against a big rival like Arsenal. They came determined not to concede yet we were able to create five decent chances, most in the last thirty minutes.
Yet some punters at the Emirates were booing at the end. Frankly this mentality is stupid to the nth degree. There is an alarming sense of self-entitlement that I hoped would have subsided given how hard this squad has worked to be in their current position. And without two of our best players, Ramsey and Walcott.
I partially blame this emotive ignorance to the nonsense spouted by the media. For example on my feed, there was Lee Dixon lamenting all game that we lacked the speed to go behind United and moaning that the Ox should be brought on. As anyone who follows Arsenal could have predicted, the Ox was brought on in the 70th minute to have a go at a tiring United defense. But he immediately demonstrated why he was a sub by losing the ball in his first attempt at a dribble setting United up for a counter-attack. Did Lee Dixon admit that maybe he was wrong and Wenger right to focus on taking care of the ball with Rosicky?
Who is surprised he did not?
Take another example.
A tiring Arsenal in the 92nd minute, having recently mounted a failed attempt on goal, recover the ball deep in their half. United cover all the passing lanes hunting the ball to have a final attempt on our goal. Our midfielders and defenders play it safe, knocking it around, hoping for an opportunity to go forward. The crowd starts howling to get the ball forward. Lee Dixon echoes the sentiment. Jack, the archetypical Englishman, receives the ball and instinctively does the crowd bidding, tries to force the ball forward and loses it within our half and United spring into the attack. Happily our defenders were on their toes and win back the ball.
Does Lee Dixon acknowledge that Jack was naive and unprofessional?
Hell no. Instead the producers turn up crowd noise to emphasize the stupid booing.
This is the kind of nonsense that have many fans emoting rather than reflecting. It was a bloody good point and a damn better performance than last Saturday.
One point off the top. Twelve games to go.
It’s all up for grabs.
Positively Arsenal 
Brilliant mate – it had to be said and you said it.
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here is what the post was going to be before I stole one from Shotta
“Well that was both disappointing and a relief.
There is no getting away from it we were not at our best, but really, what did you expect?
Off the back of the Liverpool fiasco, and with them setting up to spoil, it was somewhat inevitable.
Many people were having a pop at Ozil, personally I had him as man of the match.
I’ve said this before, but if we can hang in until Ramsey gets back we will have a real shout.
We were all over them in the second half and looked the only team that wanted to win.
Unfortunately there were some sub par performances, Giroud and Jack were not good .
In fact Jack was a liability. I don’t know what he needs , but he needs something. We cant afford to have passengers at a time like this.”
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Well it just shows George that two people of a fairly similar mind set can watch the same game and come to two different conclusions. I had Olivier down as my MoM for his unrelenting 94 minute battle with Vidic and Smalling, and the longer the game went on the more ragged the Serb was becoming.
While I would have been delighted if OG had tucked away one of the half chances he managed to forge, or Clattenberg had decided to punish Vidic for his push, but it was not to be. He hardly missed open goals did he ?
What Olivier’s hard effort did do was pull the Manyoo defence all over the shop which then opened the spaces for Santi and the other midfielders in the last few minutes as the Mancs gasped for oxygen.
As for what Jack I thought he produced as much as any other midfielder on the night. Where I think the difficulty comes is we have four very similar style and sized midfield players, Santi, Ozil, Jack and Rosicky ( and you can add in the Ox if he had started). All talented, individual ball players. I have not however seen one of them ever head a ball, ever. All are prone to be harried off the ball.
We need our mix of midfield players back, Ramsey I guess is probably exactly the player to perform that driving forward role, although Flamini may welcome in and do it for the next few games.
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I think our main problem is us lacking in creating clear cut chances and when we finally get the chances our end product is largely not good enough. Getting Aaron back will help but won’t magically fix everything. Goal scoring against disciplined sides was an issue last season and it is the same now.
The way I see it we have to rely on the stability of the back 5 and hope for some scrappy wins. Unless we address the offensive issues I don’t expect fireworks up front.
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Goal scoring against well organised/disciplined defences is always going to be an issue , same as it is for every club. Like you I don’t expect any fireworks up front barring the occasional moment of insanity.
And we are not the only ones!
For all Rooney’s and RvP’s quality they managed only a scrappy draw and had to rely on a deflection against Fulham on Sunday, and last night failed to put away the two best chances of the evening. Citeh looked toothless against CFC and even less likely to score against them than we did recently – and Norwich brought Citeh to a halt at the weekend.
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Nice one. Finally watched the match after work and that last minute was exactly as you describe.
Onwards to the FA Cup I say. And Bayern next week. Will Bayern be our first real test of the season lol?
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Well thanks a lot George. You are always free to use my little rants. This opinion on the game was after sleeping on it all night after having to endure hours ofdoom-mongering on my twitter time line and blogger-journo bullshit on NewsNow. Frankly it is f**king unbelievable the bitching and moaning coming from Arsenal fans, unhappy with a fighting draw after the horror-show last Saturday. I saw a committed team, from back to front, returning to the fundamentals that has taken us to 1 point off the top and we are two-thirds of the way into the season. We were compact and combative, created chances and we defended very well. Do people not understand that if we can sustain this level of performance into May we stand a very good chance of winning the title?
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Some struggle with it more than others and it’s quite frankly poor not being able to score a single goal against Man Utd in two games. They are historically bad, yet we barely created decent chances at OT and Emirates.
Anyway, I think it’s fair to worry about our attack these days. 12 PL games left and we still have Chelsea, Spurs and Everton away + City at home. Dropping points in those seems inevitable, unless we can get the odd goal and keep it tight at the back.
and without going all doom and gloom we should look in the rear window as well.. Liverpool with no CL or cup distraction are now only 3 points behind us with home advantages in difficult games + They are banging in goals thanks to the outstanding Suares and Sturridge who are topping the goalscoring table.
Spurs and Everton are not the same worry but they are there too.
Will probably go down to the wire, again.
PS: With all due respect, I’m quite baffled as to how you see Giroud as MoM. I struggle to see how he stretched the UTD back four. Maybe I was too focued on the miscontrolling of balls and misplaced passes
– he looks knackered..
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Nothing pedantic with your views, your only problem is that you can still think and you can see through the thing called media in this industry, which has embedded journalists, failed coaches and punch drunk former players mostly of moderate success, then you have the celebrity Gooners who owe their status to the ‘gift of the gap’ cynicism and cruelty to people who try to earn an honest pound in an old fashion honest way. Lastly you have the masses who have become ‘fans of fans’. This is large angry mob ready to action the views of the small group I have described above. Hence I call them ‘fans of fans’ of Arsenal. Sadly some of them are just lynch mobs masquerading as something else. They are often called football hooligans but I have observed real ‘hooliganism’ perpetrated by the ‘aftermath scavenging’ TV coaches who look very clever with their arrows on the screens showing us how stupid, sloppy and ‘cannot be accepted at this level’ comments. (Common denominator: all failed coaches with a tinge of a retired player for legitimation process of their post moterm comments)
However well Arsenal may play against a club hellbent on not losing or should I say on making Arsenal fail to play, the shiny suits will always applaud the ‘genius’ of the defending team and coach while highlighting the failure of Arsenal to break down the opponent.
When an ambitious opponent comes along to play and not to make Arsenal not to play, instead of crediting Arsenal for a fine performance the TV coaches usually blame the other team for playing for a win and by doing so downplay Arsenal’s part in breaking down the opponent.
Mourinho has already ‘patented’ the statement : we are building a team to start challenging for the championship next season, so we would sued for saying it. However, much as I would love to win a trophy or two in the current season I am alive to the reality that it may not happen AGAIN this year. No amount of insults, shouting and tweeting will change what shall be.
When Wenger said we already had a core of a strong competitive team late last season and early this season people were ridiculing and insulting him, some even calling for his head and that of Ramsey, if I might add. For the better part of this season Wenger and his boys have done better than many of the cheque book clubs and managers. We know where we need to strengthen in the summer to have the depth of the likes of Munich, ManCity etal. On the other hand we have in the mix expensively assembled clubs like Spurs and Liverpool who are doing well at this stage of the season. The latter being fresh due to not playing in any major championship outside of the English competitions.
Before you start shouting and foaming in the mouth beloved Gooner, think and you might see that yours is a mighty football team in the assembly line. You are still in contention for the FA Cup and Champions League as well as the EPL. You may, at this moment feel it slipping away but you can’t be sure. So show some love and accept that yours is not yet a Bugati Veyron but all it takes are a few tweeks here and there and walla! We will be looking at the grill of the chasing Veyrons through our rear view mirror
Fans of fans become fans of Arsenal
Linda (South Africa)
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Exactly Shotta!
People just like to complain. This was good given the pasting we took against Pool. It is quite reasonable for the team to be a little cautious. It was what was needed against Pool to some extent. I dare say that not losing was more important than winning for the confidence of the team, could you imagine that!? We will get back to our best.
The lack of goals is also overblown. Up until Pool we had scored at least 2 goals in every match for the most part. We have left it to the 2nd half but we have still scored. OG does seem to be tired though, or is it only me?
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Great post Linda
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Christian ” Goal scoring against disciplined sides was an issue last season and it is the same now. ”
Yes mate ,thats why teams do it-against all teams. Of course its difficult ,otherwise why would they bother? City failed twice in the last two games for that very reason.
IT WILL ALWAYS BE A PROBLEM FOR ALL TEAMS.
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Good one, shotgun, 🙂
There is no need for so many people to be so despondent after the match.
OK it would have been nice to have come away with the 3 points, but the fact that we did not, is neither here nor there in the great scheme of things.
And after that ‘Pool game a point, against even a substandard YooNited, was welcome.
I am not surprised that two reports from like minded guys should see the game rather differently. It is well known that witnesses giving evidence to the police can, perfectly honestly, give contradictory stories about what they believe they saw. It happens.
I did not hear or see what Dixon said about the game, but in all candour I would have said ‘the guys did OK’ and after Saturday’s shock result a point was fine, as was the defense shutout, but if pressed as to what needs improving I would equally say that we do lack pace, both in midfield and in attack, and for all our clever technique, it makes us somewhat predictable without a pacey out ball.
In addition, it cannot be denied that Giro puts in a prodigious amount of work, and he has the heart of a lion, but he does need better support and that means someone to score goals by feeding off his headed knockdowns and chipped passes.
All is not lost, and we have seen how other teams are losing points unexpectedly — that will continue until the end of the season, with ‘Pool and the Spuds joining the party too, I’m afraid.
COYG
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While you are ‘looking in your rear view mirror’ Christian and worrying about Liverpool making ground on us, and us dropping points reflect on the arithmetic that in order to make up ground on us the Scousers will have to take points at Anfield off Chelsea and Citeh and I suspect Spuds still have the trip to make.
One might be despondent as you appear to be but you cant argue with arithmetic
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Great stuff Shots & a brilliant post from Linda as well. I think we have to show Jack the same patience the sensible fans showed Aaron-both missed more than a season through injury and will have taken another to reach their natural form,I would leave him & OG on the bench for Sunday though just to take the heat of the pair of em,as for booing a team that’s a point of the top? Words fail me-that’s why I retired from blogging!
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Mel,
I am not convinced that all those who now bemoan Rambo’s absence and are hoping he comes back soon ‘to save us’ were always ‘sensible’ fans.
I have had the occasional contretemps with other bloggers some time ago, (not on here, because very few chat to me on here) 🙂 when it was the fashion to tear strips of Aaron, and demand his head, who now are among his biggest supporters.
It is OK to be fickle I suppose, 😦 but you are right, it would be better to cut the players some slack when they are struggling because form is temporary, as it is said, whereas class is permanent.
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” very few chat to me on here”
Stop doing those silly smiley faces and you will be taken seriously (insert banned smiley face)
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@anicoll5 You seem agitated and are needlessly patronising. I merely suggested LFC shouldn’t be disregarded in the race. Yes, they too have difficult fixtures but have been strong at home this season and the game against us was the latest example. Anyway, have fun on here. This was nothing but a short cameo from my part and I’m sure you are delighted by that fact.
UTA
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What a top piece from Shoota and LINDA….Hey Linda, more please…..
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What Mel said.
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“with all due respect” I expect I shall get over it.
Back to matters at hand however it is not a matter of Aaron saving us Henry B it is a matter of him offering a different type of more rugged midfield performance, as would the eventual return of Diaby. In the interim it is a job that Flamini could do.
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Harry
Is that a profile of Charlie Manson?
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Hang on. I wrote what Mel said on Jack back in August. No one ever agrees with me *sniffs*
I blame Vengaaaaar. If only he and the medical team (chuck in the England physio for fun too if you like, he is a part of the family) would take my advice on the Redzone™
The niggle picked up in a challenge against Coventry for JW looked harmless but sounded painful at the time. I don’t imagine he was even close to full fitness this week, looked a lot less sharp then before the Coventry game.
–
Kolo is putting together one impressive highlights reel for 13/14. Imagine the meltdowns if he was playing for Arsenal. Imagine the plunditry.
Last night on 5Live after the game was a demented rant by all the presenters on Arsenal’s transfers. Wenger has refused to spend for years and now he has run out of excuses. Straight from Groaners mouth:
Weird, absurd, propaganda (should we expect more from an organisation that has been shown to be censoring stories on the NHS?) that could possibly be of interest to an anthropologist but not to someone who knows anything about any sport. No mention of Livepool’s transfer budget of late, nor the problems caused by the King Kenny retirement splurge as they discussed their title chances. On Monday I heard Steve Claridge refer to the top two at that moment as Chelsea and City. I don’t know what old Sigmund would say, or even the amateur Freud society that are also expert Arsenal fans and experts on football, but it all sounded quite dumb to me. And just a little bit contrived.
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I agree with Harry & Henry who were both agreeing with me which means I’m agreeing with myself which I’m honestly not that comfortable with..
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Didn’t help with his fitness that the ref let St.Jack get hacked from one side of the pitch to the other. Again. I await the analysis of this clear and recorded pattern from the Redzone™ specialists with great anticipation.
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Haha!
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GP!
Hah. It’s not actually. But I quite like it that you think I would have a psycho killer as my profile pic…
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haha have you not realised …???
“arsenal not good enough for top4″ – august 2013
meanwhile arsenal tops the league for three consecutive months …narrative ? :
” wait till they have to play up north in the rain, wait till they have toplay someone serious, wait till their collapse in february”
so… all the while arsenal is nowhere near good enough to challenge for the title
” if wenger dotn spend say goodbye to the title”
hang…on…..wenger and his team werent good enough for top4..and now theyre getting blamed that theyll lose the title it if they dont spend big? ….LOL…
” see vengah…we told ya ya need to spend …now you missed your chance to win the title for the first time in 10 years , you are ruinned, fucked, destroyed, you dont know shit arsene fuck off back to france”
muhaha dotn worry neanderthal natives….he will still be here next year to go for it..and the next. …and the next…
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“Anyway, I think it’s fair to worry about our attack these days. 12 PL games left and we still have Chelsea, Spurs and Everton away + City at home. Dropping points in those seems inevitable, unless we can get the odd goal and keep it tight at the back.”
It seems everyone in the top three is struggling with their attack. Chelsea has scored two goals in three games and Man City is scoreless in two. And expect things to get even tighter as teams in the bottom half fight to stave off relegation.
—————————–
“and without going all doom and gloom we should look in the rear window as well.. Liverpool with no CL or cup distraction are now only 3 points behind us with home advantages in difficult games + They are banging in goals thanks to the outstanding Suares and Sturridge who are topping the goalscoring table.”
We play them on Saturday in the FA cup.
Liverpool are going to struggle away against teams which park the bus.
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“PS: With all due respect, I’m quite baffled as to how you see Giroud as MoM. I struggle to see how he stretched the UTD back four. Maybe I was too focued on the miscontrolling of balls and misplaced passes
– he looks knackered..”
The reason we were on top of United for such lengthy spells is because Vidic and Smalling had their handfuls with Giroud. As far as his passing and control, are you sure you were watching the Arsenal game last night?
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Unbelievable. It’s so obvious but he dared to say so.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/10636262/Arsenal-supporters-too-fearful-side-will-implode-again-all-they-need-to-do-is-have-some-faith-for-a-change.html
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And haha this is so pathetic.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/feb/13/tottenham-hugo-lloris-premier-league-sweeper-keeper
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We probably have the most difficult final stretch of the season, since we face Chelsea, Spuds, Everton and Man City all in a row, but the other title contenders have their own difficulties as well.
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I’m of the opinion that Jack was instructed to hang back, and mainly did so, make his runs and moves from deeper; a less productive role for him. He is not the through ball maestro a la Mesut or even Aaron, his passing from deeper is more frequently safe and sideways; he is the run-at-them and one-two or chip it over genius. Guesswork … our management knew the ball over the top or through ball, involving Roon-vanP at speed remained their lethal weapon, used to spectacular effect against Arsenal by Yoo, and so it proved. So the extra body in that space to slow their movement was important, and so it proved.
I agree otherwise with everything Shotta has said, only moreso. This was exactly the performance of contenders, emphatically what was needed tactically in this run of games, and precisely the response (if not the hoped-for result) that was needed.
Of course it was a restrained display after a black swan. It would have been an act of stupidity bordering on negligence to try a helter-skelter game (which we hoped to win “by scoring more than them”) to restore pride at the expense of sanity. It was vital not to concede. It was strategic, utterly important prior to Pool2 and Munich. The sole “failure” was not to put away one of 6 chances, but that’s football. How different the media reports of an identical match had Giroud’s foot been an inch longer; had Santi caught Gea napping.
Fans can be emotional.
I see the current point in the season like early second half in a 90-minute match. You scored and were on top. Early in the second half a set-back, you unexpectedly concede. The opposition are all fired up. They could sneak a second. You are at risk, minor disarray. What are you supposed to do? Immediately set about to attack with abandon to get back control? Or slow it down, re-position defensively, re-build momentum. That’s what a real title contender does every time, which is what we are.
Well done Arsenal!
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If form is temporary, class permanent then it is reasonable to say that United posed a big challenge yesterday, and the game played out like a cagey, top of the table game – much as the Chelsea match did before Christmas. The problem with games like that is the few chances that are created tend to fall to the lone striker, rather than the more open affairs where midfielders join the fun.(and yes – I know that because of Giroud’s work chances eventually were created for Cazorla). So however well or badly Van Persie or Giroud played, attention inevitably focuses on their finishing efforts, and although neither scored yesterday, it wasn’t hard to see the reasons why so many supporters have felt frustrated over the last 18 months. I think it also frustrated the crowd yesterday that Podolski was not brought on as he is perceived by many to be the best finisher we have.
And there in a sense is the rub, for so much in life is about perception – and whatever the truth of the matter, if you are in the business of selling a product, it is the perception of the customers that ultimately counts, for they will pay, or not pay, according to what they believe is the truth. But that is the stuff of another debate. For now, though, I think it was an excellent point and in a sense a lucky one, for we should have been one down in no time. Manchester United still have a huge part to play in this year’s league In RVP. Rooney, Mata and Januzai they have game changers, and they will almost certainly put a run together and finish strongly. They have Liverpool and City still to play, so the way I see it all we need to do is sneak a result against Chelsea, get a point against City, win nearly all the rest and we are home and hosed
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Indeed Tim, a virtual certainty on my card – I hear the bookmakers in Blackstock Road are paying out already
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Great post, Shotta, as always. And glad to hear from Linda as well – helping me and a few other ladies keep the gender balance going!
I agree with Mel, too, on Jack (shocking, I know). If he keeps his head down and continues to work hard, as Aaron did, he will come through stronger. And if he’s smart, he’ll pay no heed to the booers and moaners and click-seeking journalists and bloggers who try to tear him down.
If you haven’t seen the latest Close-Up vid with Aaron that’s on the dot com, you should take a look. The interviewer asks about all the doubters. Aaron smiles and says “There were a few.” He goes on to say there were those who asked him if he was being “realistic” about succeeding at this level. You would have to believe that came from people close to him, dismayed at the way he was being treated, by both the media and by fans. Yet listen to him talk about how he never thought he wouldn’t make it. Tough, tough kid. Embodies the “mental strength” Arsene is always talking about. Hurry back, Rambo.
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“I think it also frustrated the crowd yesterday that Podolski was not brought on as he is perceived by many to be the best finisher we have.”
podolski was kicked out from bayern as a flop…wenger is being open minded in his man-management approach …constantly evolving …and like an evil master is keeping his pitwolf starving in the basement with no light and waiting to release it at a table full of bavarian sausages and meat snacks
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wenger believes in redemption, believes in forming character through responcs and victories …i noticed that when he sent out the exact same team to beat chelsea for the f.a cup final that had lost the league match….fans of course were giving him shit for not using arshavin ignoring that THIS manager thinks and acts very differently to the rest of peasant coaches in the game.
it has also come to my attantion that peopel hate us because of our manager’s sophistication and that because arsenal has attracted the football fans with culture and intelligence and purists of the king of sports FOOTBALL.
no…for us it is no contact sport…nor do we accept strategies as “lets kick em” and “park it” as football tactics. for us football is about technique quality speed and precission…all four qualities non existant in the english football culture as the prevailing factors for english footballers is how tall they are and how hard they can tackle and hwo far can they hoof it. play football and if you aint good enough then shut up and lose the match….i dont understand why you have to come out and kick me….and if you do kick me i expect the ref to give the fucking foul and the yellow and punish intention.
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instead of the english football authorities looking to mirror their game to wenger’s principles they are expecting us to conform to their bullshit neanderthal culture. FUCK YOU.
wenger forever ! Arsenal . Champions 2013 – 2014 .
Barkley and Samuel = useless
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i should have added after useless the word cunts
barkley wrote a book on chapman to comfort a friend of his who was having enough of wenger……..
instead of explaining to his friend what wenger and arsenal are doing he chose the path of belittling arsene and elevating the manager of the 30s and even LYING in a blattant attempt to present the ‘local’ as better, bigger, classier, influent-ier than Arsene…………
@ours will always be better …@
hmmmmmmmm……
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Was always going to be hard to score with two teams more afraid of losing than interested in winning. Both teams kept their formations well which was made easy with the slow tempo. In Arsenals case it was extra hard to score with nobody running behind defenders on into the box. Giroud was always going to struggle because he became very easy to mark out.
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With Rambo back we will have somebody that instinctively runs into the box. Until then the Ox can do a job in this aspect as he showed against palace. But he ha just recovered from an injury and is not very experienced, so I can see why Arsene prefer to play Jack. But sooner or later Arsene has to face the problem. As I see it Ozil and Rambo are automatic starters when fit and pushing Rambo to the wings will be hard to explain when Walcott is back.
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As for width and running behind defenders I think we have tried to solve that with use of fullbacks. Monreal has got into good positions few times although with lack of end product. And Sagna has got in some good crosses. But it’s a very hazardous project when you play against big teams that tend to punish you when your fullbacks are caught high up the pitch.
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apropos ..i was thnking last night of our strongest 11….and in my head i came up with something liek this
……………………legend…………….
.robot…….BFG…….ninja……gibbo
……….Tony M…storm shadow….
……………….snakeyes…………….
.M.M………………………..pitwolf….
……………….na na na……………..
* if/when shaolin mini returns i will place him to M.M and move M.M to pitwolf and perhaps play pitwolf upfront instead of na na na
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Lol if my drugs are working as well as yours I assume:
Tony Montana = flamster
Storm shadow – Rambo
Snake eye – Ozil
Mm – Cazorla
Pit wolf – Poldi
Nana – Giroud
Shaolin – theo
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that is spot fucking on my friend. well done!
we’re on the same plane….page i meant to say…..
..na na na nan na…
the promised land is a state of mind
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most of jack best work yesterday was stopped by a swift kick or barge unpunished by clatts inability to find his yellow card and fear of using the red. I like common sense refs but persistent fowling is probably the biggest thing the modern ref has failed to master even more than simulation.
As for the beautiful Giroud he was cut adrift further than some of the farms on the Somerset levels and was paddling furiously in a sea of utd defenders. His workrate was immense and the fact he so nearly got on the end of such meagre fare in spite of being outnumbered shows just how good he is. There are some players that you need to re-watch the game concentrating only on them to really see their worth OG is one such a player.
While we so wanted three points yesterday and were disappointed after the final whistle, I think the media were most disappointed after circling like vultures for a victim of the game the got a draw and for them it was the worst possible result.
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arse_or_brain @ 6:00 pm
You may have a point there. The media is flailing around looking for a loser to pile upon. Shed a tear for the poor little parasites. They have nobody to feast on.
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Both ourselves and Man Utd looked a little short of confidence after disappointing results, and I thought both teams were cautious and played not to lose for most of the game. We ended up having more of a go near the end but we really do miss Walcott and Ramsey, especially in these ‘big’ games. Theo and Aaron love to attack space, to make runs for others to find them. Without them we are playing almost exclusively with attackers who want the ball to feet, we move it around quickly but without a great deal of penetration. Losing them has been a huge blow.
Yet, against weaker sides we have continued to get the results despite their absence, based on a strong defence and just enough moments of magic to take a 1-0 or 2-0 win without playing our devastating best. If we can keep doing that against the small sides and get Ramsey fit and on form for our tough run of league fixtures in March then I still believe we have as good a chance as anyone of being top in May. Chelsea and Man City keep slipping up and the schedule is about to get more packed with the return of Champions League games, there is a long way to go.
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I see Suarez has been sounding off again today about being the ‘victim’
One of the best parts of the season has been the guarantee that the obnoxious little shite will never dirty my club’s shirt by wearing it.
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